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Obama Likely to Seek a ‘Wartime’ Defense Secretary In the days since Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel
resigned, two prominent candidates to replace him have said publicly
they will not do so. They are former Undersecretary of Defense Michele
Flournoy and Rhode Island Democratic Senator Jack Reed.

As
President Barack Obama seeks a new appointee, the priorities for a
defense secretary have changed since he selected Hagel, then chairman of
the Atlantic Council, in February 2013, according to Barry Pavel,
director of the Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International
Security. The president probably will want a “wartime secretary,” Pavel
said in an interview with Ashish Kumar Sen earlier this week.

Kroenig, a nonresident senior fellow with the Brent Scowcroft Center on
International Security, said the US and its allies must increase their
pressure on Tehran to reach an agreement, but that a deal along the
lines of the current negotiation will not be comprehensive.

Obama to Visit India in January President Barack Obama will travel to India in January, becoming the
first US president to visit the country twice while in office. Bharath Gopalaswamy, deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center, tells Ashish Kumar Sen why this visit is important—and notably how it will be seen by India’s main rivals, China and Pakistan.

Sharif gets consolation call from ObamaPrime Minister Narendra Modi bagged a
visit from Barack Obama, while his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif
received a consolation prize of a phone call from the US President.

Nuclear Deal Could Open US-Iran Cooperation Against ISIS, Ex-Officials Say As international negotiators approach next week’s self-imposed deadline
for reaching a compromise to let Iran pursue a nuclear program, US and
French former officials told Atlantic Council forums this week that a
deal could offer new advantages in the Middle East. An
agreement could create an opportunity for a US-Iranian “open
relationship” on confronting militant threats in Iraq and Afghanistan,
Ambassador Thomas Pickering told a November 19 forum at the Council in
Washington. “For the first time, the United States and Iran have gotten
down to the wire, along with our European and Russian and Chinese
colleagues, to something that could in one way or another generate, if
not a sea change, certainly a major shift in the situation in the
region,” said Pickering, a former undersecretary of state for political
affairs.

US Prez gets Modi’s Republic Day invite, says yesUS President Barack Obama has accepted
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to be the chief guest at
Republic Day celebrations on January 26 in New Delhi.This
will be the first time when a US President will be the guest of honour
at an event that both India and the United States hold close to their
hearts — the founding day of the Constitution. Also, Obama will be the
first US President to visit India twice while still in office.

Obama offers shield to 5 m illegal immigrantsIn one of the bold decisions of his
presidency that could benefit thousands of Indian techies seeking the
Green Card, US President Barack Obama has unveiled sweeping immigration
reforms that will shield almost five million illegal immigrants from
deportation. In a
pro-immigrant speech from the White House on Thursday night, Obama urged
Americans to show compassion toward “undocumented Americans” who have
worked hard but “see little option but to remain in the shadows or risk
their families being torn apart.”

Obama’s foreign policy on the line The recently concluded midterm elections have given the Republican Party
complete control over the U.S. Congress, and that is bad news for U.S.
President Barack Obama’s foreign policy agenda.

Republicans exude confidence on eve of pollsRepublicans are expected to take control of the US Senate and strengthen
their majority in the US House of Representatives in midterm elections
on Tuesday, deepening the long-running political gridlock in Washington.

Rights group wants law to tackle communal violenceThe failure of successive Indian governments to prosecute those
responsible for the deaths of 3,000 Sikhs in the aftermath of Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination has left Indians more vulnerable
to communal violence and distrustful of the judicial system, according
to a New York-based human rights group.